He’s a sucker for SkyMall. “I love that stuff. I love infomercials. I love all those things. I almost always want the products. At least initially.”

Some people claim that more than any other time in history, today is a dreamer’s and doer’s paradise. Writers can publish straight to the Internet. People design and sell T-shirts online. 3-D printing, makerspaces and market forces described by Chris Anderson in his latest book, “Makers: The New Industrial Revolution,” have put powerful DIY technology in the hands of regular Janes and Joes.

But, Creed cautions, making an idea commercially successful is harder than ever. “The market is so crowded,” he said. “It’s still possible (for the lone inventor or innovator) to make it big, but it’s not likely.”

While selling is hard, innovating is totally doable, he maintains. “Innovation isn’t special. That is a myth. A lot of people think there are innovators and there are not innovators, and that’s not true,” he said. “There are people who are allowed to innovate and there are people who are not. All people can and should be innovators in my view.” Easier said than done? Here are edited excerpts from a conversation with Creed about brainstorming, motorcycles, daydreaming, censorship, and how these all wrangle for space in his brain.

Q: What would be better: a world run by visionary types or detail-oriented doers?

A: If the world was run by people like me it would go to hell in a handbasket. ’Cause nothing would ever get done. Everything would be half finished. And most of it would be kind of crazy and kind of unsatisfying. Similarly though, if the world was run by people who were detail oriented, everything would get done, but nobody would want it. Clearly then, it would be better if those two people worked together and did something that neither could achieve alone. That’s why you need teams.

Q: Where do your ideas come from? How do you get inspired?

A: When I say an idea comes out of the air, when I say it just kind of pops in to my head, I mean that I prepare the foundation by looking at very disparate sources of inspiration that interest me. In a sense, they pop out of my accumulated knowledge and experience. I do not hope for the best. I actively look and feel. I actively cultivate the ground to have ideas. I’m looking, listening, feeling, trying things.

Q: Can you give me an example?

A: Concept cars alone are very, very interesting in the sense that it gives you an insight into where the car industry thinks the world is going. Or at least the developed world. They’re saying, “We believe that human beings are going to be like this in a few years’ time.”

Q: How do your sources of inspiration help you solve problems and come up with ideas?

A: I’d say it all boils down to how many times in a day do you ask the question “Why?” And you may not ask it aloud. I don’t necessarily need an answer. (Here, he offered an example. He deconstructed a trio of designer lampshades hanging over the table where he was sitting, discussing what their fabric, shape and size reveal about who they were made for, their purpose, their aesthetic and commercial appeal.) What’s interesting about them is, why do they look the way they look? And why did the guy that designed them, design them that way? That’s how I come up with ideas. It’s by bringing things together that have no relationship and finding one. You may have an idea, an idea doesn’t necessarily have much value (alone). The trick is to try and combine multiple things so that the sum is greater than the parts.